All
the World's Battleships : 1906 to the PresentIan Sturton (Editor)
For two generations, battleships, sometimes known as all-big-gun ships,
represented the military might and pride of their countries. They threatened,
they impressed, they surprised in a way that no other symbol could, and
their presence could influence events for hundreds of miles around. Their
like will never be built again, as the capital ships of today and tomorrow
are platforms for missiles or aircraft. This volume provides the technical
data, gives the design background, and outlines the careers of the world's
battleships and battlecruisers. Amazon UKHardcover - 192 pages Reprint (20 January, )Brassey's: Conway Maritime; ISBN: 0851776914

A
Glimpse of Hell : The Explosion on the U. S. S. Iowa & Its Cover-Upby Charles C. Thompson
On April 19, 1989, Turret Two aboard the recommissioned battleship USS Iowa exploded, killing 47 men. In A Glimpse of Hell, former naval officer, newspaper reporter, and 60 Minutes producer Charles Thompson has written an authoritative exposť of the United States Navy high command's consistent efforts to manipulate the evidence of that disaster and slander deceased seaman Clayton Hartwig. The Iowa investigation is contextualized by Thompson's startling insights into the moral universe of the navy's masters, a cabal so protective of their own jobs that they prepared press releases indicating that an out-of-control Tomahawk missile launched from the Iowa was actually a part of a federal and military crackdown on an illicit marijuana field in Alabama. Unlike the Tomahawk debacle, the falsehoods embroidered into the investigation of the Turret Two disaster did become public, as naval officials accepted a noticeably botched report from investigators who "lost" two 2,700-pound projectiles and consistently claimed, with no foundation, that Hartwig, killed in the explosion, was a murderous and suicidal psychopath who blew up the turret in revenge for a thwarted homosexual affair. Two years later, they were forced to admit that they had no clear and convincing evidence linking Hartwig to the explosion and apologized to his surviving family members. (The family later initiated a $12 million defamation lawsuit against the U.S. Navy.)

As active duty officers rebuffed his own investigation, Thompson found that many personnel, including captains and admirals, were willing to talk when their careers were no longer on the line. A Glimpse of Hell assiduously follows the Iowa story with a dedication that honors the dead and their families, as one journalist does more to expose the careerism and sexual preoccupations of ranking naval officers--and their consequences--than any government investigative agency. --James Highfill Amazon.comHardcover - 430 pages (March 1, )W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393047148

German Capital Ships of World War 2by M. J. Whitley
Cassell AcademicPaperback - 224 pages Out of Print - Try Used
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German
Battleships 1939-45 (New Vanguard, 71)by Gordon Williamson, Ian Palmer
In this, the first of a five volume series covering the capital ships
of the German Navy of World War II, Gordon Williamson examines the design,
development, and operational use of the battleships used by the Kriegsmarine.
Paperback from Osprey Pub Co

German
Pocket Battleships 1939-45 (New Vanguard 75)by Gordon Williamson, Ian Palmer
After the end of World War I, the German Navy came up with the concept
of the Panzerschiff, or Pocket Battleship, as a method of circumventing
treaty limitations on the size and types of ship Germany was permitted
to build. This book covers these three sister ships, the "Deutschland",
the "Admiral Graf Spee", and the "Admiral Scheer", which formed the core
$16.95 of the Kriegsmarine's fighting power at the start of World War II.
Paperback from Osprey Pub Co

Battleships of the Scharnhorstclass : The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau
: The Backbone of the German Surface Forces at the Outbreak of Warby Gerhard Koop, Klaus-Peter Schmolke, Geoffrey Brooks (Translator)
Hardcover - 175 pages United States Naval Inst.; ISBN: 1557500452Out of Print - Try Used
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Battleships of the Bismarck Class : Bismarck and Tirpitz : Culmination
and Finale of German Battleship ConstructionBernard Koop, et al
Hardcover
Out of Print - Try Used
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Requiem
for Battleship Yamato (Bluejacket Books)
by Yoshida Mitsuru, Richard H. Minear (Translator)
Requiem for Battleship Yamato is Yoshida Mitsuru's story of his own
experience as a junior naval officer aboard the fabled Japanese battleship
as it set out on a last, desperate sortie in April 1945. Yoshida was on
the bridge during Yamato's fatal encounter with American airplanes, and
his eloquent, moving account of that battle makes a singular contribution
to the literature of the Pacific war. The book has long been considered
a classic in both Japan and the United States. As with most great battle
stories, its ultimate concern is less bombs and bullets than human nature,
less death than life. This sensitive translation by Richard Minear is totally
faithful to Yoshida's original prose, its language vigorous and idiomatic
yet poetic in nature. An informative introduction puts the work in historical
and political context and discusses Yoshida's postwar search for the meaning
of peace. Amazon.comPaperback - 152 pages (April )United States Naval Inst.; ISBN: 1557505446

Battleship Musashi : The Making and Sinking of the World's Biggest
Battleshipby Akira Yoshimura, Vincent Murphy (Translator)
Presents the complete history of the Japanese World War II battleship,
the Musashi. The book covers all details, from the planning and making
of the ship to its final sinking at Leyte Gulf in1944. Amazon UKPaperback - 192 pages (November )Kodansha International; ISBN: 4770024002Out of Print - Try Used
Books

Battleshipsby Paul Stillwell
Book Description: From the sinking of the Maine, which sparked
the Spanish-American War, to the devastating losses in the attack on Pearl
Harbor, Battleships have played a crucial role in the history of US naval
warfare. Tracing the development of the battleship from the commissioning
of the first seagoing class in the 1890's, Battleships brings to life the
story of these lethal leviathans with illuminating text and stunning full-color
and black-and-white archival photographs. Affecting personal reminiscences
from both officers and enlisted men give readers an intimate look at the
reality of the men who lived and died aboard.
Hardcover - 160 pages (December )Metro Books; ISBN: 158663044XOut of Print - Try Used
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